Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI)

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

Tunis, 16 – 18 November 2005

PrepCom-3 – 19-30 September 2005

Subcommittee B on Implementation

Submitted in writing on behalf of CCBI

30 SEPTEMBER 2005

Thank you Madame Chair.

CCBI’s comments relate to Chapter One, Section 20 of WSIS-II/PC-3/DT9 (rev 2).on implementation.

We find your proposal for section 20 to be an interesting basis for discussion and appreciate your efforts. However, we feel strongly that implementation of the action lines requires a wide range of core competencies. No single specialized agency possesses all the necessary expertise to coordinate all WSIS implementation. This responsibility should fall under the Secretary General and should follow the normal UN Summit implementation.

Moreover, we believe that implementation must recognize the vital role of the private sector in accomplishing the goals and objectives set. Indeed, many initiatives are already underway in the private sector related to implementation of the WSIS agenda. We are pleased that this role is recognized in your proposal, but encourage you to broaden this inclusion beyond national implementation to regional and international implementation in the text (paragraph 3).

Finally, CCBI offers two specific changes to the text. First, the private sector should be referred to in the text either as “private sector” or as “business”. Second, in the second paragraph we suggest that UN agencies have undertaken “WSIS related activities” rather than “activities in the WSIS process”. Therefore, we propose that “WSIS related activities” should replace “activities in the WSIS process” in the second paragraph.

Thank you Madame Chair.

What is the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI)?

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held during the week of 8 December 2003 in Geneva, culminating in the Summit segment on 10-12 December 2003. The second part of this Summit will take place in 2005 in Tunisia.

Principals of the Summit host countries and executive secretariat invited the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to create the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI) as a vehicle through which to mobilize and coordinate the involvement of the worldwide business community in the processes leading to and culminating in the Summit. ICC and the CCBI group led the private-sector effort to provide substantive input into the first phase of the Summit, and mobilized the private sector to participate in the preparatory phases and at the Summit itself. The CCBI, is constituted of the following organizations and their members: Among the organizations actively involved in the work of the CCBI, in addition to ICC, are: Associacion Hispanoamericana de Centros de Investigacion y Empresas de Telecomunicaciones, Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce, the Business Council of the United Nations, Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD; Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce; Global Information Infrastructure Commission; Money Matters Institute; United States Council on International Business; World Economic Forum; World Information Technology and Services Alliance; French Publishers Association; International Publishers Association; and Gobierno Digital.

For further information regarding CCBI, please consult the WSIS website at:
the CCBI website at
or ICC’s website at:
or contact

About ICC

ICC is the world business organization, the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world. ICC promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Business leaders and experts drawn from the ICC membership establish the business stance on broad issues of trade and investment, e-business, IT and telecoms policy as well as on vital technical and sectoral subjects. ICC was founded in 1919 and today it groups thousands of member companies and associations from over 130 countries.

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